SXP Production Scheduler Usage Guide
First published on: 10/09/2024/10:34 am
In this section, the coloured writing indicates the coloured boxes in the screenshot below.
If this is the first time you've opened SXP Production Scheduler, you'll see that no events are scheduled.
Before scheduling anything, let's look at some of Production Scheduler's key elements.
The yellow box below shows the current view settings. You can toggle between day, week, month, year, and calendar view.
In the red box is the list of resources waiting for events to be planned against them.
The icon in the green box is to “Show Unplanned Events”. This is where your production processes will wait before they've been planned in the schedule.
By clicking the unplanned events icon, you'll see a window showing the list of unplanned operations.
You can click an item, hold it, and drag it onto the schedule wherever you choose. (However, this doesn't enforce that the correct event is added to the correct resource).
You can also click the tick box of an item or multiple items, then click "add to calendar". The item(s) will be added to the correct resource(s) at the beginning of the current day.
If you add an event with linked operations (aka predecessors) from anywhere in the chain, all related events are automatically added to the board and planned in the correct sequence.
In the example below, ASSEMBLY was dragged onto the scheduler at 0900, and the QC and pack operations were automatically added to the scheduler because they're linked.
You can drag and drop an event between different times of the day or onto different days.
If there's a linked event, dragging and dropping a step will cause any SUBSEQUENT steps to move with it. (For example, if you move step 1, step 2 and step 3 will move automatically. If you move step 2, step 3 will move automatically, but step 1 will remain the same. Moving step 3 just moves step 3 and leaves step 1 and step 2 in the same place.)
When you move a step in the chain, subsequent steps will move to an out-of-working-hours position.
The subsequent steps will automatically move to the next working day. (There may be additional conflicts to deal with.)
1.1.1. Saving the Schedule
When you've planned your orders for the appropriate times, save the schedule with the save button. The data will then write back to SAP Business One.
This can take a few minutes if there are a lot of production orders, so please be patient.
Data is written back to UDFs on the production order lines in SAP Business One for the resources planned with the "Planned Start Date and Time" and "Planned End Date & Time". When the schedule is saved, it can only be rolled back manually.
1.1.2. Cancelling any change
You can cancel changes by clicking the "cancel changes" button. Your scheduler data will refresh and take you back to the last saved set of planning data.
1.1.3. Visual aids to help you plan
There are several visual aids built into the system to help with planning process-related steps.
When you click a step, related steps will be highlighted in light blue, while non-related steps remain dark blue.
"Out of Capacity" warning
If you've defined a capacity against a resource in the "Working Hours" table, the system gives a visual warning if you try to plan more than this capacity (e.g., a capacity of 1 means 1 process should be scheduled on that resource). If you schedule more than the intended capacity, you'll receive a warning.
This isn't a hard block against scheduling over capacity; it's merely a warning that this might not be advisable.
More event details
The amount of information about an event on the planning screen is limited due to each event's screen space.
To see more information about an event, use the side window that opens when you click an event. It offers more details about the production order – you can even use this window to change the event's dates.
Colour Coded Events
As of January 2025 Release, events are now color coded according to status, working in conjunction with Shop Floor Data Capture to easily represent a visual aid to understanding the current status of Production Orders.
There are 4 colors in use; Blue, Green, Amber and Red.
When events are added to the Production Schedule for the first time, they will show in blue. This is to signify that they are newly added to the schedule.
When events are scheduled in the future or the event has been started in Shop Floor Data Capture On Time, the Event is displayed in Green. this is to signify that this event still appears to be on track.
When events are scheduled to have started in the past and have been started in Shop Floor Data Capture, but the start happened after the planned start date & time, then the event will be colored Amber. This is to signify that the event started late and may be at risk of finishing late.
When events have planned start dates and times before the current date and time and the event has not yet been started in Shop Floor Data Capture, the event will be displayed in Red.